Preference mapping: A case study

The application of preference mapping to a survey in which 119 children tested 11 frozen chicken nuggets was investigated. A cluster analysis undertaken on consumer data provided three clusters. Consumers in the first cluster (43% of the sample) did not have a marked preference for these 11 nuggets. For the two remaining clusters, preference mapping was conducted. A feature of this case was that the sensory space, analysed by Principal Component Analysis, involved more than two dimensions. The purpose of the study was to describe hotel to choose first, the regression models between sensory and consumer data and second, the axes on which to represent these regressions, using the Fisher test of nested models. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.